Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths has released the following statement today (April 23), following an extended meeting of the party's Political Committee in London yesterday:

The Communist Party is not entirely surprised by the announcement to hold a General Election on June 8, never having taken Tory leaders at their word and aware that the so-called 'fixed term' Parliament Act is bogus.

'The left and the labour movement must intervene in the debate around Brexit to put forward a working class perspective', Communist Party international secretary John Foster told the party's Political Committee on Wednesday evening (March 15).

This pamphlet will look first at the likely course of the negotiations themselves: how options are currently being defined by the British government and what their implications are for workers’ rights. Next, it will examine the EU: its positive achievements but also its neo-liberal economic framework and the consequences both for the crisis of social democracy and the rise of right-wing populism. The third section will look at the objectives of British big business and the City of London, the relationship with the US, and most important of all, why British big business and the City will not and cannot resolve the basic problems facing the British economy and why public sector intervention is essential.

The pamphlet will end by considering the opportunities and dangers posed by the negotiations for working people in Britain. It argues that the opportunity now exists for restoring democratic control over the economy, for addressing the structural problems of stagnation and job loss and for re-establishing workers’ rights. A campaign for such an outcome has the potential to galvanise a wider movement across Europe and constitutes the best chance for winning the battle against right-wing populism.

The alternative, of the Conservative Government creating a new right-wing populist base for neo-liberal economics, is one that should persuade every trade unionist of the necessity to campaign for a progressive settlement.

Main Resolution of the Communist Party of Britain 54th Congress, 19-20 November 2016

Bring down the Tory government!

Defeat the ruling class offensive!

Build the labour movement and its Communist Party!

Communist parties across the world play a unique role in demonstrating that capitalism, because of its commitment to marketisation and profit, cannot provide lasting reforms and that a socialist alternative is the only solution to capitalist crisis. The Communist Party can play this unique role in Britain and its programme Britain’s Road to Socialism is a key tool in support of this. It is the role of the Communist Party to give the working class and its allies a vision of an alternative society, a socialist society, by taking into account ourown country’s history and conditions.

The Communist Party and its programme provide a Marxist analysis of the crisis of capitalism and the role of imperialism in the world. We point out the urgent need to lift people out of poverty, to protect hard won gains made over the last 70 years and to protect our planet’s ecosystem.

'The most powerful big business circles in the USA are determined to promote their interests aggressively against China, Russia and the European Union', Communist Party chair Liz Payne told the party's Political Committee on Wednesday evening (February 15).

But at the same time, she pointed out that the conflicts within the country's state apparatus reflected differences of tactics and strategy within the US ruling class.